NASA Photos: Raging Arizona Wildfires Seen From Space

Fire conditions on June 13, 2011, in eastern Arizona are beginning to reach a plateau. The Wallow North fire is now 18 percent contained and the Horseshoe Two fire is 53 percent contained, according to InciWeb.

On June 12 the Wallow North fire crossed the state line into western New Mexico, reported the Arizona Republic. InciWeb reported that local utility companies continue to repair power lines and poles in areas around the Horseshoe Two fire that are now safe. The Horseshoe Two fire is located in eastern Arizona, south of the Wallow fire. The USDA Forest Service reported today that the Wallow North fire has burned 452,155 Acres and the Horseshoe Two fire has burned 157,254 acres.

On June 13, 2011, NASA’s satellite imagery captured isolated fire incidents in Georgia and Florida. Remnants of the fires at the Okefenokee Swamp continue to burn in southern Georgia, and smaller brush fires have emerged in Central Florida due to dry weather.

Blazing conditions persist in eastern Arizona. The information system estimated that the Horseshoe Two fire will be fully contained June 22.

Smoke streaming from each fire is shown in this image, taken on June 12, 2011.

The White Mountain Joint Information System reported that fire officials allowed residents of Eagar, South Fork and Springerville area to return to their homes, but warned of unhealthy air conditions because of the smoke. Coronado National Forest, Chiricahua National Monument and the Rincon district of Saguaro National Park are closed due to the Horseshoe Two fire, according to the Arizona Republic.

Over the weekend of June 11-12, Firefighters were still trying to make progress in battling Arizona’s massive Wallow Fire and the Horseshoe 2 fires that are spreading smoke through the south central U.S.

By the end of the day on June 9, 2011, Arizona’s massive Wallow Fire had reached 386,690 acres (609 square miles or 157,701 hectares) and had burned 29 and threatened 5,242 homes. Most of the homes destroyed were in Greer. Approximately 3,012 people are working to contain the fire, which is now just five percent contained. Calmer winds on June 10 should help firefighters make more progress on containing the fire, said InciWeb.

Smoke from Arizona fires, including the Wallow Fire, continued traveling toward the northeast on June 8, 2011. As seen in this image, thick smoke stretched from New Mexico and Texas northeastward to Illinois.

On June 8, 2011, the U.S. Air Quality “Smog Blog” reported that wildfires in eastern Arizona affected air quality throughout much of the eastern United States. The thickest smoke occurred over the Plains States, but thinner smoke plumes reached Quebec, Canada, and stretched to the Atlantic Ocean off New England.

The smoke that is clouding skies in much of the Midwest contains a mix of gases and fine particles. One of the gases released when a fire burns is carbon monoxide, a colorless, odorless gas that damages human health by limiting the flow of oxygen through the body. It is also a key ingredient in the production of harmful ground-level ozone and urban haze.

On June 3, carbon monoxide flows northeast directly from eastern Arizona. By the next day, concentrations are higher north of the fire.

While much of the carbon monoxide shown here is from the Wallow Fire, some may also be from urban pollution. In the United States, vehicles and other gasoline-powered equipment generate the bulk of carbon monoxide pollution.

The blaze from Wallow North, one of Arizona’s most potent fires, grows at an alarmingly fast rate. Likewise an end to the Horseshoe Two fires seems nowhere in sight. U.S. Forest Service officials rank the Wallow North fire, which has left 600 square miles of pine forest blackened, as Arizona’s second-largest forest fire on record, according to Reuters.

Both fires are continuing to produce thick clouds of smoke, as seen in this image.

Fire officials said they are bringing in a Boeing 747 supertankers to assist with the fires and spread fire retardant chemicals, reported the KPHO news service on June 8.

This image from NASA’s Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument on the Terra spacecraft show the Wallow and Horseshoe 2 Fires currently burning in Arizona. The data were acquired mid-morning (local time) on June 7, 2011. As of June 8, the large Wallow fire in the White Mountains has burned more than 389,000 acres (more than 608 square miles, or 1,574 square kilometers) and is currently the second largest fire in Arizona history. More than 2,000 people are working to contain the fire, which is being driven by high winds and low humidity. The smaller Horseshoe 2 Fire in the Chiricahua Mountains has burned more than 106,000 acres (166 square miles, or more than 429 square kilometers) in southeastern Arizona.

A CALIPSO vertical profile from space shows the smoke plume on June 3, 2011 from the wildfires currently raging in Arizona. It is overlaid on an image captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on the Terra satellite nine hours later. The data shows that the Wallow Fire smoke plume reached heights of 5 kilometers ( 3 miles) high.

Burning in the mountains of eastern Arizona near the border with New Mexico, the Wallow Fire has become the second largest fire in Arizona history. Starting on May 29, winds and hot, dry conditions helped the fire grow quickly, burning approximately 389,000 acres when the Landsat 7 image above was acquired. The dense plume of smoke pouring north from the massive fire affected air quality as far north as Wyoming and as far east as Georgia.

Plumes of smoke cover parts of eastern Arizona, as the Wallow North fire continues to grow. It has expanded by more than 100,000 acres over the last few days and the Horseshoe Two fire also by a couple thousand of acres, according to Inciweb.

Clouds of smoke can be seen in this image from the larger Wallow North fire. Compared to previous images captured this week by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument, the smoke from the Wallow North fire has visibly increased.

More than 3,000 people have evacuated the areas nearby because of the increasing intensity of the fires, Reuters reported. On June 7 the Examiner reported 2,315 firefighting personnel from across the nation were on the scene including 31 hotshot crews and 25 handcrews. The massive Wallow North fire is moving north and northeast on its eighth day close to the communities of Eagar and Springerville, reported Wildfire Today on June 8.

Dry weather conditions continue to fuel the two untamed wildfires. Despite efforts the Wallow North fire has not been contained and the Horseshoe Two fire has been merely 55 percent contained. The Wallow fire spans 233,522 acres, while the much smaller Horseshoe Two fire is sized at 104,285 acres, according to Inciweb.

This image depicts a streaming cloud of smoke from the Wallow North fire and a much less visible smoke trail from the Horseeshoe Two fire.

The National Interagency Fire Center reports critical fire weather conditions associated with strong winds of 20 to 40 mph and low relative humidity below 15 percent will continue over eastern Arizona, New Mexico, southeastern Colorado, and West Texas. Many residences and communities have been evacuated.

Two large fires are raging in eastern Arizona, each over 100,000 acres. The Wallow North fire is burning in east-central Arizona and the Horseshoe 2 fire is in southeastern Arizona. Both were generating a lot of smoke that was captured in an image from NASA's Aqua satellite on June 3, 2011.

The Horseshoe 2 fire, located in the lower part of this image, has been burning since May 8 near Portal, Arizona and according to Inciweb, has burned 100,075 acres. It is currently 55 percent contained, and is estimated for containment by June 22. Inciweb reported that 38 engines and as many as 1,000 personnel are involved in fighting this fire. There were 7 injuries, and so far the cost is $27,866. The cause of the fire has been attributed to people.

The National Park Service has closed Chiricahua National Monument due to potential threat of the Horseshoe 2 fire. For more information, visit the park's website.

The Wallow North Fire is located north of the Horseshoe 2 fire. The fire is located in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest in east-central Arizona, close to the New Mexico border. The wildfire has already affected 192,746 acres and the Apache National Forest is closed to all public entry, per the U.S. Forest Service. Inciweb noted that there are 2,315 personnel involved in managing this wildfire.